Research

Research

Click for larger image (Credit: www.jonlomberg.com)

ORIGINS AND DIVERSITY OF PLANETARY SYSTEMS

Searches for extrasolar planets have revealed a remarkable diversity of worlds, from scorching super-Earths to far-out super-Jupiters, and challenged our preconceptions many times over. We investigate their origins and evolution through observational studies of protoplanetary and debris disks in single and multiple star systems.

Click for larger image (Credit: NASA/JPL)

Detection and Characterization of Exoplanets

Using high-precision observational techniques, we do ‘remote sensing’ of alien planets seen in transit and via direct imaging. Back in 2008, we reported one of the first planetary mass companions to a normal star discovered through imaging and confirmed through spectroscopy and proper motion. Recently, we have measured the changing phases of hot Jupiters with Kepler data and detected the transit of a super-Earth around a Sun-like star using a ground-based telescope for the first time.